Summary: Rhode Island LISC (PDF)
In Rhode Island—where LISC’s Building Sustainable Communities program is called “Our Neighborhoods”—police and community residents working together have made community safety a central part of comprehensive community development plans. In Providence’s Olneyville neighborhood, nuisance properties have been transformed into quality affordable housing, helping attract businesses to commercial corridors where crime previously deterred investment. Most recently, thanks to collaboration among LISC, community leaders, neighborhood organizations and the City of Providence, Riverside Park along the Woonasquatucket River has been reborn as a vibrant recreational space used by families, seniors and school groups. These efforts—as well as the broader Our Neighborhood agenda to build healthy neighborhoods—have been embraced by residents, elected officials, local businesses and other stakeholders, and featured in the news as a model that is having a significant impact in Rhode Island.